Royal decree published to kick off election process for 200 senators
The Royal Gazette on Saturday published a royal decree announcing the launch of this year’s senatorial election process.
The brief announcement says the four-article decree obtained His Majesty the King’s approval on April 24, and the law comes into effect on the date it is published in the Royal Gazette.
As per the decree, the chairman of the Election Commission (EC) is in charge of enforcing the law.
The announcement was undersigned by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin.
After the current junta-appointed Senate’s five-year term expires on Friday, Thailand’s upcoming senatorial election will see thousands of candidates vote among themselves to finalise 200 names.
The EC is expected to announce the application period for candidates next Monday.
As per a tentative EC schedule, voting at the district level will be held on June 9, at the provincial level on June 16, and at the national level on June 26.
The final election result is scheduled to be announced on July 2.
Candidates must be Thai nationals by birth, at least 40 years old at the time of application, and have a minimum of 10 years’ experience in the field they wish to represent. They must also have some connection with the district where they apply to contest, either having been born there or studied, stayed, or worked there for at least two consecutive years.
The law bans 26 kinds of people from becoming senatorial candidates. They include political party members, public officials, senators under the current charter, former MPs, former government ministers, former local administrators, or former political party executives who vacated their seats less than five years ago.
Also prohibited from contesting are parents, spouses and children of senatorial candidates, MPs, senators, political appointees, local administrators, and officials of the Constitutional Court and independent organisations.
Like their predecessors in the current Senate, the new set of senators can serve only one five-year term.
Senate applicants will vote among themselves over six rounds to eventually select 10 senators from each of the 20 eligible fields.
The eligible groups are: law and justice, education, public health, agriculture, science and technology, mass communication, employees/workers, business owners, tourism professionals, industrialists, artists/athletes, independent professionals, women, and elderly, disabled or ethnic groups.
Each group at a district level will select five people to participate in an inter-group poll to elect 60 district candidates.
The shortlisted candidates – 55,680 from 928 districts nationwide – will then conduct a provincial vote to select two candidates from each group or 40 for each of the country’s 77 provinces.
This will result in 3,080 senatorial candidates contesting at the national level, where they will repeat the intra-group and inter-group voting to select 10 candidates for each of the 20 groups. The 200 candidates who are selected will become senators.
